Where is the eHealth heading to?

Almost all sectors of society are evolving and in one way or another, making use of the technical innovations that are arising, and Health is not an exception.

Medicine evolution has historically been linked to scientific innovations, but also to technical and technological ones. Since the use of the first mechanical tools, medical instrumentation has continually and dramatically improved. Precision surgery machines are quite widespread and it is not unusual to find systems such as the Da Vinci robot (robotic surgery equipment) in operating theatres across many countries.

Internet of things…and people

IoT devices are particularly being used to produce a number of innovation projects within the Health sector. And with the aim to enable organizations (and people) prototyping and validating their different proposals and use cases around IoT, the Spanish company Libelium (a manufacturer of these types of devices) has a medical development kit on sale that facilitates the process. Through a variety of sensors capable of measuring up to 20 biometric parameters and access to Libelium’s cloud platform, you can build and program different projects quite easily.

One of the most common uses of IoT in this field is monitoring patients that are either under a special treatment or needing some kind of remote assistance.

In this line, Fujitsu announced and launched a pilot Project a few months ago in a Dutch hospital, to monitor and accelerate the rehabilitation process of patients. Using smart sensors that capture movements, balance, and other vital constants, doctors at the hospital can remotely track patients’ progress during their recovery process.

Another interesting project is the one announced last February by Altair, Ericsson, and Sony Mobile. A wristband connected to a device called Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM) monitors blood sugar levels, activity, sleep, and heart rate. It can even send alerts to the user or to the doctor under certain events, for instance when glucose levels increase or drop, and it does not require a smartphone to operate.

Data is king

Another upward trend in technology that is also being leveraged by the Health sector is Big Data. There are more than 300 million medical appointments per year, and that is only in Spain; the amount of useful data that you could extract from them is huge. That is, in fact, the value proposition that a company called IOMED offers; through a set of data and intelligence analysis tools, they structure the information obtained after each appointment and enable other doctors to make better and faster diagnosis thanks to the vast amount of additional information they are able to access.

The smartphone serving as your doctor’s consulting room

However, innovations do not always imply the use of new medical instrumentation, smart objects or complex software algorithms. Sometimes it is just a matter of optimizing processes, such as improving doctor-patient communication.

Thanks to the proliferation of smartphones experienced in the last decade, we have seen how some companies are offering patient care services through mobile apps. A good example is Mediquo, an application that allows patients to chat with their doctors and specialists 24/7 and, at the same time, allows doctors keep track on their patient’s evolution remotely and in a comfortable way.

The security challenge

The breakthrough that these innovations are producing makes the Health sector face a major challenge: cybersecurity.

Cyberattacks and data thefts are increasingly making a lot of noise and appearing in the front pages of the mass media. It is easy for many of us to recall some famous events of this kind happening recently. In the Health sector, the problem gets more serious as the data and information being handled is extremely delicate. Therefore, having protection and prevention mechanisms against potential attacks is crucial.

But data privacy protection is not the only concern; IoT devices are frequently targeted by many cyberattacks. It is (literally) vital to provide devices such as remote insulin providers or heart pacemaker devices with the necessary degree of security so that we can protect them from any cyberattack attempt. Just a few weeks ago, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology issued a paper reminding the risks these cardiac implantable electronic devices face giving some recommendations on how to deal with the challenge of protecting patients against malicious attacks.

Regarding public administrations, there are not too many initiatives focusing on cybersecurity for Health. However, it is worth mentioning that, in 2016, the European Union announced a public-private partnership regarding cybersecurity in which they expect to invest up to 1.8 billion Euros until 2020. The proposed details work by adopting cyber-resilience IT systems as well as enhancing EU’s cybersecurity policies, including a European certification framework for ICT security products.

Ensuring the integrity of devices and minimizing the impact of potential cyberattacks is a task that must be shared by all agents involved: public administrations, companies, and users. One hopes that the remarkable growth these technologies and devices are experiencing does not prevent companies from having a proper security-by-design approach when making their products, especially if they are aimed at the Health sector.

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Barbara is the IoT device platform for professional IoT deployments. It offers the required security, support, maintenance and tools to manage a scalable IoT implementation. We have a great team of professionals ready to deliver turnkey IoT projects based on our products that will address your real business problems.